Sermon Tone Analysis

Exegetical Point: In response to Jesus’ signs, the Sanhedrin resolve to kill Jesus to save the nation.

Homiletic Point: Jesus will die to gather God’s Children.

Intro

Recap

Our last week in John for a while

Lazarus was raised from death - Jesus showed himself to be The Resurrection and the Life

Climactic sign!

Hard to top!

The Book of John is shifting from focusing on the ministry/travel and signs of Jesus to the week before his death with lots of teaching at the Last Supper.

Our passage today is dealing with some of the fall out from the Lazarus miracle!

This passage may seem a little unimportant, because it’s mostly explanation, but...

3 Applications from this passage

2 options: Believe or Betray Jesus

You might think I’ve left out some options here, but I will explain why there are only really two options when it comes to Jesus.

These two responses to Jesus are seen in our passage today.

Lets look:

So, if you remember, there was a crowd of mourners who followed Mary.

Jesus called for Mary before he raised Lazarus from the dead, and this crowd of mourners had been in tow.

They witnessed what had happened!

They saw the sign take place!

So how do they respond?

Many Believe!

This is the good response.

They had seen God at work through Jesus Christ and so they responded appropriately they put their trust in God and believed in the One He had sent: Jesus Christ.

This is in addition to those from Chapter 10 who had heard God’s word through the prophet JtB, and had seen Jesus signs, they beleived in Jesus.

But this was still a very small number.

there had been many who found it too hard, or even just outright rejected Jesus.

There were a few who believed, and a lot who did not.

We see that pattern continue here.

Out of those who had seen Jesus raise Lazarus, many believed, and some apparently did not.

They went and tattle-tailed.

They dobbed Jesus in to the authorities as if he had done something wrong.

To be fair, it doesn’t say they didn’t believe, but the way this is written compares the two groups - “Many believed BUT some went to the pharisees.”

They betrayed Jesus.

They pushed him away.

They are a sign of things to come, where one of Jesus closest friends, Judas Iscariot, would do the same.

This is treachery.

We see before us the two options that face us!

Believe in Jesus or Betray him.

Sure, we’re not standing at the tomb near Bethany, witnessing the events take place, wondering how we will respond.

But we are here today, in the assembly of God’s people, hearing the Gospel being proclaimed, and you are faced with the question: “Will you believe or betray?”

Many of you have believed, and so today serves as yet another opportunity to feed on Jesus by faith and rest in his salvation.

But for some, you have not yet answered this question.

“Will you believe or betray?”

Jesus was a man who walked the earth about 2000 years ago - history makes that clear.

He claimed to be the Son of God, God in the flesh, who had come to rescue God’s Children from death and damnation.

He fulfilled ancient prophecies, he performed signs and miracles, he spoke the Words of God.

He offered himself up as a sacrifice in the place of Gods Children.

He died on a cross.

He paid the debt of sin that we owe to God.

He atoned for our sin.

He entered the grave, but three days later he rose from death!

He defeated death, and the Devil!

He freed his Children from the tyranny of Satan, Sin and Death!

He said, that all who call on the name of Jesus Christ in faith will escape that tyranny!

All who flee to Jesus will be freed!

IF you pledge your loyalty to Jesus and trust in Him, you are given a citizenship in his Kingdom of Life.

You must give up the old ways, you must abandon your foothold in hell and cling to Jesus.

You must abandon your idolatries, your selfish ambition and your pride, humble yourself before the King of all the Earth!

Trow yourself on His mercy and receive undeserved mercy.

OR

You could reject the mercy of Jesus Christ and shoulder the burden of your own sin.

Load up the stinking piles of rags that you call your “good life” as a “good person” and try to cover the mountainous debt of sin that is dragging you down into the depths of the grave.

You could reject Jesus, push away the hand that holds out redemption, and instead utter the blasphemy “Jesus is no King”, “He’s not God”, “he has no claim on my life....”

Jesus is king over every square millimetre of this universe!

From the furthest reaches of the cosmos to the Plancks between particles.

Much of the world has rejected the authority of Jesus, but that does not mean his authority is not real.

Right now Jesus Church is in the world calling on everyone to recognize Jesus’ authority, and that includes what we’re doing here today.

Jesus is king.

Jesus is Supreme.

Jesus is God over this world and you are called to submit to him.

If you will not, then you are committing treason.

You are betraying your king to serve yourself and Satan.

You are joining the ranks of Judas, and the Jews who killed Jesus.

And these mourners who tattle-tailed to the authorities.

And making no choice is still a choice.

It’s a choice not to receive Jesus, and thus you stand outside his loving salvation.

How do you receive Jesus?

Call on Jesus - speak to Him and ask him to rescue you, to be merciful despite your rebellion.

Repent - Forsake your sins; own up to your crimes against God, and reject them.

Receive forgiveness.

Believe - Trust in Jesus for Salvation!

Be Baptized - Receive the washing that signifies your cleansing and rebirth.

Walk in Faith - Listen to God and walk in obedience, the outworking of your new citizenship.

So that’s the first application: “2 options: Believe or Betray Jesus”

Bad Leaders can Speak Truth

This second application is something I thing we need to be reminded of, because it is not uncommon for us to find that there are dodgy leaders who speak truth at times, or people who have been “good” leaders but then have failed down the line.

What do we do with what they’ve said?

More on that after we look at the text first.

These reports about Jesus have come back to the Pharisees and they have

Quick Refresher - Like political affiliation

Pharisees - Conservative Religious types, academic, religious lawyers, leaders in synagogues, form varying tribes.

Sadducee - Liberal/progressives, happy to bend to suit the moment, most Priests were Sadducees.

All priests were from the tribe of Levi.

Sanhedrin - The 70 leading men of the Jews, a civil/religious parliament including Chief Priests, elders of the people.

Mix of Sadducees and Pharisees.

Israel was occupied by Rome, so while they had some autonomy, some decisions had to be approved by the Roman governor.

So with that background lets see what happens after the Pharisees receive the reports about Jesus:

SO they get the parliament together to hash things out.

Our previous actions have been ineffective, the bloke was just down the road from Jerusalem performing miracles!